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Quotes from John Dryden

The first is the law, the last prerogative.
~ John Dryden
Genius must be born, and never can be taught.
~ John Dryden
Then we upon our globe's last verge shall go, And view the ocean leaning on the sky: From thence our rolling Neighbours we shall know, And on the Lunar world securely pry.
~ John Dryden
From Harmony, from heav'nly Harmony. This universal Frame began.
~ John Dryden
When I consider life, 'tis all a cheat; Yet, fooled with hope, men favour the deceit; Trust on, and think tomorrow will repay. Tomorrow's falser than the former day.
~ John Dryden
None would live past years again, Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain; And, from the dregs of life, think to receive, What the first sprightly running could not give.
~ John Dryden
There is a pleasure in being mad which none but madmen know.
~ John Dryden
Reason to rule, mercy to forgive: The first is law, the last prerogative. Life is an adventure in forgiveness.
~ John Dryden
When I consider life, it is all a cheat. Yet fooled with hope, people favor this deceit.
~ John Dryden
Take not away the life you cannot give: For all things have an equal right to live.
~ John Dryden
Love is not in our choice but in our fate.
~ John Dryden
Either be wholly slaves or wholly free.
~ John Dryden
Thus all below is strength, and all above is grace.
~ John Dryden
Thou strong seducer, Opportunity!
~ John Dryden
Happy the man, and happy he alone, he who can call today his own; he who, secure within, can say, tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.
~ John Dryden
How happy the lover, How easy his chain, How pleasing his pain, How sweet to discover He sighs not in vain.
~ John Dryden
So softly death succeeded life in her, She did but dream of heaven, and she was there.
~ John Dryden
Bankrupt of life, yet prodigal of ease.
~ John Dryden
To die is landing on some distant shore.
~ John Dryden
It is madness to make fortune the mistress of events, because by herself she is nothing and is ruled by prudence.
~ John Dryden
Look around the inhabited world; how few know their own good, or knowing it, pursue.
~ John Dryden
Democracy is essentially anti-authoritarian--that is, it not only demands the right but imposes the responsibility of thinking for ourselves.
~ John Dryden
Drinking is the soldier's pleasure.
~ John Dryden
Humility and resignation are our prime virtues.
~ John Dryden